Saturnine

I find astrology interesting. Not interesting enough for me to spend lots of money on tons of books and software, trade in my cheap and functional grad student wardrobe for a closet full of Stevie Nicks goes to the renfest clothes, or adopt a personna with a mysterious name like Aelita. I consider it a form of self enlightening entertainment where the enlightenment comes from reflection and deliberation about the generalizations, characterizations, and descriptions that are made as they regard self identity and interpersonal interactions. Crucially, I do not believe much enlightenment can come from literal belief in charts, transits, or forecasts.


Saturn
From the NSSDC photo gallery

If your interest in astrology is anything more in depth than the info used for pick up lines ("hey you're a virgo? You like soap on a roap?" Ok, well maybe you won't encounter that one much. More likely it's something like "I'm a capricorn - that means I'm a goat. Heh heh."), you might have heard of something called a Saturn Return. If you have no interest in astrology, if you're thinking "Astrology? Right, like I believe that everyone's lives are dictated by planets moving around in space!" then what the fuck are you doing in my blog? Get out!

Back to the Saturn Return.
Your Saturn returns when it moves into the same position it was in when you were born. Saturn is a slow mover, so it takes about 29 years or so for it to get back to the place where you started. General cultural knowlege includes the associations of Venus with love, Mercury with travel or communication, the moon with emotion, and the sun with ego. So what's Saturn associated with?

Here's an excerpt from an introduction to the astrological influence of Saturn.
"Saturn...rules the responsibilities, restrictions and limitations we are apt to encounter, and the lessons we must learn in life...The karmic lessons we have come to experience and overcome in this lifetime are expressed by Saturn, the karmic initiator of the zodiac."

I'm quite sure the concept of the Saturn Return is a culturally relative characterization but there is some sense to it considering, as one site offers, "We live in a culture without (formal) distinct divisions between childhood and adulthood; this (Saturn Return) is a clear one" (parentheticals mine)

I guess my Saturn Return is over astrologically speaking. I have many friends who I am watching go through these difficult years. It is not easy. When I was 27, one friend quite sincerely told me that it was very difficult to be my friend. He qualified it with "right now" but it was hard to hear regardless, mostly because I absolutely knew he was right.

So how'd my Saturn Return go? I guess the things I dealt with, more or less (mostly less) gracefully and successfully these last few years have resulted in some lessons learned. In general, I think the most concrete and useful thing I have gained is a realization that my life is right here right now and not something that will start "when...". As in "when I graduate from college", "when I get into grad school", "when I get a divorce", "when I get done with grad school", "when I get a real job", "when I buy a house", when, when when. This doesn't mean I don't procrastinate anymore. But I don't get to excuse it with the tacit belief that I'm still rehearsing for the big show.

What got me thinking about Saturn tonight though was an entirely different matter. It was that I was thinking about the issue of posting images and photos on my blog and I got all sort of, well, paranoid? I found myself feeling concerned about copyright and public use and the like. You might notice some of my pix coming down or changing to links while I sort this out. I am not sure I feel that it is morally wrong for me to post things appearing in what I see as a public domain and which have perhaps less than obvious restrictions on use. I'd feel bad about posting someone else's personal work without giving them credit I suppose. And it is illegal to post copyrighted stuff, I know that. But some things don't have clear copyright info on them. I suspect that this does not matter in the legal world. If I were to scroll down or mouse over or something I'd probably find the info. I'm not using the images for profit or claiming them as my own, but then does that matter legally either? What's that saying about ignorance of the law? I think about this more though and I find myself wondering things like is posting such images against convention? Will I get caught? Should I care? The answer I've come to is that I probably should, and there is the issue. Why? Because I might get in trouble? Is that what matters most to me?

Which lead me to think "how saturnine of me", but then I thought I don't really think that is the right use of the word. It means morose and associated other stuff. So why'd it pop into my head? I guess because my recent experience with things Saturn related have had to do with cosmic spankings. This has apparently infected my knowledge of the word's relatives, usurping the existing definitions of those cognates. I wonder if the great Morris Halle has a rule for this process?

I find some validation of my lexical reflex in the two definitions below. That is, taken together and with a richer understanding of the influence of Saturn in the context of astrology, I suppose maybe this word is not inaccurate for my thought process regarding posting images.

One definition reads:
"Pertaining to the planet Saturn (archaic); born under the influence of Saturn, hence gloomy, grumpy, sour, and with a sarcastic attitude."
Another, from an astrology site, adds the word has "...a meaning borrowed wholly from Astrology, which defines it as one who has a strong Saturn accent."

So, saturnine. Used to describe one who spends too much time wondering about the roles that social convention and legal definition play in one's principles and personal conduct.